Joe Pesci And Al Pacino In Talks To Join Robert DeNiro In Martin Scorsese's The Irishman?

It has been fifteen years since Martin Scorsese made a movie with Robert DeNiro. The two men, as an actor director pair, helped build each other's careers from Mean Streets through Casino, establishing both as two of the greatest film legends of all time. Back in 2008, a report came out that the two were finally working together again on a project called I Heard You Paint Houses, the story of mobster Frank “The Irishman” Sheeran, based on the book by Charles Brandt. Now, not only does it look as though the project is getting a second wind, but two of the great gangster genre actors are coming aboard as well.

Deadline reports that Al Pacino and Joe Pesci are currently in negotiations to join the project, now titled The Irishman. Based on a script by Steve Zaillian (Schindler's List, Gangs of New York, American Gangster), Sheeran was a close friend of Brandt and confined in him with all of his secrets, including the 25 men he killed as a hitman and that he was the man who killed famed labor union leader Jimmy Hoffa.

As exciting as the prospect of this film is with the cast and director involved, I'm sure I see the purpose of glorifying a mass murderer like Sheeran (anyone seeing double after my Mickey Rourke post this morning?). Scorsese, of course, has made a career out of brilliant movies about mobsters, so I can't imagine this is going to be any kind of schlocky bullshit. Scorsese is currently filming Hugo Cabret, so this project still hasn't moved beyond the "in development" stage. If they can secure Pesci and Pacino, however, there's no excuse for Scorsese to not make it a priority.